The grandest ambition that any man can possibly have is to so live and so improve himself in heart and brain as to be worthy of the love of some splendid woman; and the grandest ambition of any girl is to make herself worthy of the love and adoration of some magnificent man.
I think no one but me has the right to write about my life as I want to write it in a particular way. I don’t think any other person will be able to tell the story of my life like how I have approached it. It works best when it’s written by someone who has experienced it herself.
I was at a party in London when I met Bond producer Barbara Broccoli. She introduced herself, and I didn’t believe her name. So I just replied: ‘Yeah, and I’m Cathy Carrot.’ I think maybe I got off on the wrong foot!
I’ve always been interested in writing about people, including young children who are not able to speak for themselves. As in my novel ‘Black Water,’ I provide a voice for someone who has died and can’t speak for herself.
Mum was bold and brave and knew herself. She’d pick me up from school dressed in colourful Nigerian fabrics, and even though I’d be like, please just wear jeans, I admired her for it.
The only kind of influence I want to be on anyone is by being, constantly and consistently, someone who probes herself at every juncture, improves the way in which she functions as a citizen, and questions the status quo.
I think that there’s a strain in journalism that believes that anyone who surrenders him- or herself to faith and to belief necessarily checks reason and rationality at the door.
I really identified with Pocahontas’ struggles as a young woman trying to identify herself in a modern, changing world and trying to stay true to her culture and heritage.
